A prominent Labour peer has condemned the alleged cover-up of an undercover police officer’s 19-year relationship with a woman he deceived using his fake identity.
Shami Chakrabarti, the Labour peer and former shadow attorney general for England and Wales, is calling on the home secretary to address the lack of safeguards around undercover operations after the latest revelations.
She made her remarks as it emerged that several state institutions were aware of the relationship, which resulted in the couple having a child together, years before the victim herself was informed of her partner’s true identity.
Between 2013 and 2018, a police force, the police watchdog for England and Wales, and a judge-led public inquiry into undercover policing all became aware that the undercover officer had deceived a woman into a serious, long-term relationship.
However, the victim in the case was not told until 2020, when Avon and Somerset police, which employed the officer, undertook a U-turn and decided to inform her. It had known about the relationship since 2013.
Chakrabarti said: “The scandal here is not only the vile behaviour of an individual officer but the alleged institutional cover-up and victim-bullying by Avon and Somerset police.”
She said the latest case provided fresh impetus to revisit and revise the Covert Human Intelligence Sources (Criminal Conduct) Act 2021, which allows undercover agents to commit crimes while carrying out their duty.
“Perhaps the home secretary might divert her gaze from culture wars and leadership ambitions and attempt to address the gaping lack of safeguards around undercover operations?” she said.
On Wednesday, the Guardian revealed how an undercover police officer used his fake identity to deceive a woman into the 19-year relationship in which they became partners and had a child together.
The relationship began in 2001. But it was not until 2020 that the woman, whom the Guardian is referring to as “Mary” to protect her identity, discovered that man she had recently agreed to marry was in fact a police officer who had used his fictitious identity on the birth certificate of their son.
While Mary, who is black, has chosen not to speak publicly about the 19-year deceit, her family have hit out at Avon and Somerset police, accusing the force of bullying and threatening them into silence over the last three years. They accuse senior officers of trying to co-opt them into a cover-up.
The Independent Office for Police Complaints (IOPC) has launched several investigations into the case, including one that is considering why police chiefs at Avon and Somerset waited seven years before telling Mary the truth.
The investigations also encompass West Midlands police, which employed the undercover officer when he first met Mary in the early 2000s.
The IOPC is understood to have first been informed about the case in 2018. Sir John Mitting, the retired judge who is heading the public inquiry into undercover policing, is said to have been informed about the case in 2016. Both the IOPC and Mitting declined to comment when asked if they were complicit in the failure to notify the woman of her fiance’s real identity until 2020.
Human rights organisations have condemned the alleged cover-up and described the case as a glaring example of institutional sexism and racism.
Black Lives Matter UK said the admission by Avon and Somerset in June that the force was institutionally racist, and a pledge to work to improve relations with black people now “rings hollow” as the revelations revealed “the tactics used to suppress and intimidate this black family”.
The group said: “We refuse to accept their watered-down rhetoric on institutional racism. What this hypocrisy demonstrates is the importance of being precise in our understanding of the black condition in the UK. We cannot entrust this institution, which has repeatedly demonstrated its disregard for our safety and wellbeing, to define our path forward.”
Dr Shabna Begum, the interim co-CEO of the Runnymede Trust, said: “This is yet another harrowing case of police failing woefully in their duty of care, where the reputation of Avon and Somerset police force is prioritised over that of the victim, with potentially disastrous consequences.
“We are already at crisis point with our policing, and it is often women of colour who bear the brunt of mistreatment, harm, and a total lack of support or safeguarding from state institutions which are purportedly there to keep them safe.”
Akiko Hart, the interim director at the campaign group Liberty, said: “This appalling deception, and the apparent cover-up that followed, represents a shocking case of police abuse of power. But sadly, given what we know about institutional racism, misogyny and abuse in policing, this comes as no surprise.”
On Wednesday, after the Guardian revealed details of the 19-year relationship and allegations Avon and Somerset police sought to cover up the scandal, the force issued a lengthy apology.
“We fully recognise for those involved it has been deeply upsetting over a number of years, and remains so today,” it said. “We are sorry. We recognise and understand the devastating and appalling impact this has had on all those affected, and we have taken and continue to take our duty of care to them extremely seriously.”
